Sunday, June 15, 2008

Kudos to Senator Dianne Feinstein for striking a blow for capitalism. After seven months of wrangling, the U.S. Senate finally agreed to privatize The Senate Dining Room.

Since 1993, the Senate's restaurants have lost more than $18 million, including an estimated $2 million in 2008. Ironically, staffers from the senior branch of Congress prefer the House of Representative's basement cafeteria.

In contrast to the Iron Curtain-esque performance of the Senate restaurant (only 20 new items in the past 10 YEARS), the House restaurant was privatized in the 1980s, and turns a hefty profit, some of which goes to the House.

As one would expect, the apparatchiks did not go quietly:

"I know what happens with privatization. Workers lose jobs, and the next generation of workers make less in wages. These are some of the lowest-paid workers in our country, and I want to help them," Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a staunch labor union ally, said recently. The wages of the approximately 100 Senate food service workers average$37,000 annually.

However, when Feinstein warned senators that their choices were privatization or a 25% hike in prices, the glorious proletarian revolution was shoved aside in favor of cheaper sushi.

As an American, I'm ashamed that these morons are running our country.